I recently became fed up with not having switched outlets on my bench.  Plugging in and unplugging unswitched soldering irons and such became rather tiresome, so I started brainstorming solutions to facilitate switching individual devices on and off.

I had a brainwave one day, after spending a lot of time failing to come up with answers.  Here is my solution!

If you don’t recognize it, they were popular during the 90s.  Set your monitor on it, and plug all of your computer and associated periphery in, and have fun switching everything on and off.  Each of the five outlets on the back is individually switched, with a big master switch to control the lot.  Perfect for what I needed it for.

One problem.  Its ugly Continue reading →

A while back, I was given an Epson Perfection 2400 scanner, complete with the top light for scanning film negatives.  The only problem was that the power adapter had been lost to the ages, and I had no way of powering it.  I had a look at the weird connector, and stuck it in the closet, in my “to do” stack of stuff.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I was spring cleaning that closet, and came across this scanner again.  I decided it was at the “keep or toss” phase, and since I still didn’t have a halfway decent scanner, I decided that I’d try and fix it.  Here’s the patient, in all its dusty glory!

On a close examination, it turns out that it takes 24v at less than an amp, but it takes it through a weird reverse barrel connector.  I searched for a while for the appropriate connector on a donor supply on the rack at goodwill, but was less than fruitful.  I had a 24v adapter that would power the thing, but couldn’t plug it in.  Then one evening, I was struck by a brainwave.  Remove and replace the connector on the scanner! An idea was born! Disassembly proceeded! Continue reading →